Trinity Pebble Beach
by Arianna Sunrise
Summary: Rewritten! Rini has been moved around from country to country more times than she can count, and her parents are starting to worry about the effect on her. Elios' has forced him to go to a US school aginst his wishes, and as a result, he is feeling very
1. One

Rini has been moved around from country to country more times than she can count, and as a result, Rini is not exactly your model teen until her actions lead to something she never could have predicted, and that she feels guilty enough over to finally start trying to act like an adult. Worried for their daughter's well-being, and completely unaware of the reason for her sudden change of heart, Rini's parents decide that it's time to send Rini to one of the Trinity Schools for the Elite. Elios has also moved a lot, but he is more spiteful than Rini, and has turned to rebelliousness and debauchery for solace, both of which are fostered at Trinity Pebble Beach School if one only takes the time to look for them. Their first meeting is hardly the stuff of fairytale romances, but when mysterious events start unfolding around campus, many of them in relation to Elios' past flames, and to Rini, the two are forced to enter a partnership in order to crack the mystery before someone gets seriously hurt. Suddenly, the girl who's been walking on eggshells, and the vengeful Irish player don't find each other so repellant anymore, but is it really a match made in heaven, or are there just too many hurtles to go over in order for their relationship to work?

* * *

Sorry about the crappy summary, but it was kind of hastily thrown together. If my plans change, I'll be sure to update it. Now, I'm sure that you have a few questions that I am going to try to answer all at once, right here, but if you have anymore, don't hesitate to ask me in a review!

Well, I'm giving it a shot—rewriting Trinity: Pebble Beach, that is. I've been itching to write a story taking place around the Monterrey Bay Area, and I just decided, hey, why not work with something I've already started? Okay, so admittedly, I actually already have been working on a rather long series about a girl at a boarding school in the Carmel Valley, which, by the way, is about a five-minute drive from Pebble Beach… well, without traffic, anyway, since Ocean Avenue is obviously always clogged with tourists who don't have a clue where the flip they're going…

Ahem.

So this story is going to be different, because:

A—I've never been to Ireland, nor spoken to an Irish person in my life, and as such, have a bit of a problem writing about it

B—Ditto with Italy (I plan to go there next year, though)

C—I have to keep it away from my original plotline

D—Even though I was one of the first people to write it in a Rini story, I am now pretty disgusted with how I handled Taylor, implying that he was going to rape Rini and all

E—I realized that I probably would never give in to a guy like Elios the way that Rini did originally, because, let's face it; he's an asshole player who deserves to get hit upside the head with a Jones soda bottle, and if I wouldn't date him that easily, then I doubt that anyone else would either

F—And finally, I wanted the story to mirror the actual events of Sailor Moon in some way, and while I'm telling you now that there will be no fuku or wands, I am going to try to write something that kind of closely parallels the events of Sailor Moon Super S with a few modifications, the most obvious ones being that Peraru is going to be around for it, and Rini's twice the age she was in the Super S season

But I digress; to those of you who loved the original:

Lo siento 

_Es tut mir leid_

_Je suis désolé_

_Sono spiacente_

_I'm sorry (_I'm also sorry for the Babblefish-style translations of the French and Italian)

But if I'm going to write this thing, I'm going to do it my way, and that means: as devoid of spelling and grammar errors as possible, of which I had quite a lot in the previous version of this.

Oh, and I'm sorry that I can't seem to stop babbling even on paper!

Enjoy!

Oh, wait… I DO NOT OWN SAILOR MOON, AND IF I DID, I WOULD NOT BE WRITING THIS HERE OF ALL PLACES!

P.S. Narrowly avoids thrown tomato I'm going to do this at least in Rini first-person, and possibly in Elios' POV as well.

* * *

Rini: 

I _hate_ being the new girl.

I know, I know, most clichéd phrase of all time, but love, didn't you know that a cliché doesn't become a cliché without something to back it up? Like, I don't know, tons of new boys and girls at a school bemoaning their fates to anyone willing to listen?

That's how I reacted to it for a long time. I would whine and complain to my best friend, Hotaru, over the phone about it every night for a month each time my father, the ambassador, got transferred to a new country, and she would agree with me whole-heartedly. Her father was a Red Cross doctor, and thus just as subject to trips—if not outright transfers—for months at a time, and he couldn't exactly leave his only child at home since his wife had passed away eleven years ago, when Hotaru was five.

That was how Hotaru and I had met, actually. Her father and mine had both been sent to Egypt for diplomatic purposes when we were nine, and Hotaru and I had been put in the same international school, in a class for English-speaking children. Three other girls—Ceres, Juno, Pallas, and Vesta—had also been in our class, and the five of us together had developed a lasting friendship over those difficult months of constant snickering and teasing in so many foreign languages for being Americans and Brits.

Hotaru was one of the Brits, as were Ceres and Juno, but Pallas, Vesta, and I were Americans, so naturally, the three of us had taken rather more slander than the others. Despite my kinship with those two, though, Hotaru had been my kindred spirit, shy to match my outgoing personality, and classically beautiful to match my more unusual and exotic looks.

But I digress.

The move that changed me was the move to Athens. It happened in the middle of eighth grade, after a full year-and-a-half of being in Tokyo, where I had finally been accepted into a school, with friends, and commitments, and a great love for shopping until I dropped with said friends.

When my mother sat me down in the library of our presidential hotel suite, where we had been living the whole time we were in Tokyo, I had known what she was going to say, and had been totally devastated. I screamed, and cried, and threw fits—hell, I threw objects until my mother strode across the room and took my hands to still them, going down to beg me on her knees.

"Serena, please! Your father has already given up Holland and Argentina, and I can't ask again for him to decline, because he'll lose his job. You and I both need to set aside our own wants and realize that his job is what pays for all of it, and further, that it's what he loves to do!" She said, her eyes pleading with me to try and understand why we had to leave, but she had blundered by using my real name, as opposed to my nickname, Rini, and because of that, I thrust her off like a petulant child.

"I don't care, I just want to stay here and be happy for once!" I nearly sobbed, turning away from her.

"You'll be happy in Athens, Serena, I just know you will." She said, and I guess that she got up off her knees, because I felt her hand on my shoulder as she said it.

Again, I shook her off, still angry with her for letting my father's career uproot us again, and even more for what I perceived as her weakness in the face of my father's demands.

They didn't get along, I knew that, but my mother was so in love with my father that she refused to leave him, even when things came to a head like this, and she wanted to stay, while he wanted to pack up and leave again without a care.

"I'll never speak to him again, I hate him, and I hate you!" I hissed, turning back to her to let her see just how much I meant those scathing words.

"You don't mean that."

Looking back, I'd never seen her so terribly sad and afraid in my life, but because I was young and stupid, I didn't care; I just let her have it.

"Yes, I do. You're always letting him do this, always, because you're not strong enough to say no to him. I hate how weak you are, and I hate that you're the one trying to tell me this when it was his decision. I'm not going to leave, now or later, so you can just go back and tell dad that I don't give a flying…" I kept going, obviously, and it was only when I registered the door closing that I realized that she had fled from my anger, and from the things that I had said.

It took me a full two days and half the flight to realize that I had been acting exactly like my father, controlling and violent, and now my mother was sick with self-hatred over what I had said.

I had forgotten, in my rant, that my mother was actually not well. She had always been a bit pale, and a bit sickly, and stress did not agree with her at all. Normally, it was her arguments with my father that put her under, because their relationship was tumultuous at best, and destructive as anything at worst. It had never been my fault before, because as much as I had complained about various subjects, she had always known that I was going to snap out of it in an hour, because we had always had a pretty decent relationship.

Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so well myself.

By the time we had gotten to Athens, my guilt was so awful that I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to fight it anymore, not the moves, not my father's edicts, not my mother's whole-hearted attempts to speak with me again. It wasn't their fault that I was such an immature little brat who only thought of herself. I apologized to them both, and promised to settle into the international school in Athens, and all the other international schools with grace and dignity.

I also promised _myself_ that I wasn't going to let myself fall into the trap of acting like my father again, no matter how much I wanted to vent, because it would have been very hypocritical of me to continue being selfish and arrogant when those were the very things that repelled me about my father.

That was also when I lost touch with Hotaru, mostly because I was so disgusted with myself that I couldn't face telling her what had happened between my mom and I. She would be so disappointed in me, I was sure, and think me so spoiled that she would go and find another best friend who didn't take everything for granted, and tell her mother that she hated her for relenting to a necessary change.

Over the next year, I was very graceful in accepting the moves to Greenland, Australia, and Brazil, and it helped that I had been taking etiquette classes in order to be able to deal better with my father and the constant moving. It even got to the point where I was actually content with both my family, and myself. Tensions in the family eased, and my parents actually got along better because they were no longer fighting over me, and consequently the other details that they usually got hung up on.

However, my new attitude began to worry my mother, unbeknownst to me, especially when I agreed to go to South Africa, a country that she knew that I detested because of the apartheid system in place. It worried her enough that she pulled my father out of a meeting to talk to him about it.

I wouldn't have known about it except for the fact that she had taken him into the study and left the door ajar, and I just happened to be passing by when I heard my name, and my ears perked up.

"What are you worried about? She's fine with it, you said so yourself." My father said in response to the sentence that I admittedly hadn't been paying much attention to before it. Pressing up against the wall next to the door, I peered in to find my father standing and towering over my mother, which he usually had enough respect not to do unless he was angry, so that clued me in right there.

"Rini hates South Africa, Darien, she told me so! I know how thrilled I was when she was so agreeable to Greenland, and even more so when she continued to take the other moves so well, but I know my daughter, and I know that she would never normally be caught dead in South Africa. Something is wrong with her, and I realize that I've known that for a long time now. I… I think that she might actually be depressed." She admitted sadly, beginning to pace around the office as she always did when she was nervous. My father, on the other hand, had stilled, and I was surprised to see real concern darken his features—concern for me, the daughter that I had assumed he didn't care about.

"So what do you propose, Serena? I've already accepted the post, after all." He reminded her brusquely, but I told myself that he didn't know any better, maybe because he was looking at his watch when the wounded expression passed over my mother's face.

Diplomat or no, Darien Preston had no idea how to speak to people outside of the political world, and I have to wonder that my mother ever actually married him in the first place despite such a fatal flaw.

My mother hesitated, and then drew out a brochure from her purse that I couldn't read from my vantage point.

Still, I knew better than to think that it was a restaurant menu or something, and it immediately put me on my guard.

She handed it to my father, and his eyebrows lifted in response.

"Remember how I told you that my father was also moving us around a lot when I was a child. Well, when I turned fifteen, and my parents noticed that my grades were slipping because of all the moves, they sent me to one of a chain of schools called the Trinity Schools in Miami. It was really nice for me, Darien, I really enjoyed going there, and it helped that it was a school strictly for the children of diplomats, ambassadors, business people, and really all of those types who constantly have to move." She said hopefully, and my father glanced up at her thoughtfully from the brochure.

"Go on." He prompted, intrigued, and I was floored that he was actually considering this, considering sending me away to some hoity-toity prep school somewhere instead of taking me with him this time. Mother continued now, heartened that he was listening to her for a change, instead of just dictating my future thoughtlessly as he had in the past.

"I checked, and their Pebble Beach school is currently accepting new students. They said that they would take Rini right away, if we wanted, and since their program is geared towards kids in the diplomatic world, they are also well equipped to handle problems related to moving, or anything else should she have need. She would have her own room, and a phone plan so that she could call at any time for a relatively low cost, and the best part is, she'd actually be able to stay in one place, just not with us."

I paled and stumbled away from the door, shaking my head. I was over my shock, you see, and now I was terribly upset, because it hadn't even occurred to me that my parents would actually try to send me away. The though was too horrible even to fathom!

Maybe I was wrong to accept the moves, maybe I should have kept being rebellious, and shouting, and…

Again, I shook my head, feeling the tears coming on, and ran as fast and as far as I could, but not before my mother pulled the door open and gasped with the realization that I had overheard.

"Oh, Rini, it's only for the best…"

They didn't find me again until well after dinnertime, and by that time, I was half asleep in a tree outside my bedroom window.

"See Darien, see?" I heard my mother say. "She can't do this anymore, we have to send her to this school before something worse happens!"

There was a pregnant pause after that, and then I heard my father sigh… in defeat.

"You're right, Serena, I'll make the arrangements to send her tomorrow." He said, and I just wanted to die, because all of the crying that I had been doing had made me too tired and hoarse to argue.

The next day, I was on a plane to Pebble Beach, California, once again resigning myself to the fact that I was going to have to stomach an idea that really didn't sit well with me—boarding school.

Okay, so I realize that the characters were all a little OOC, but that tends to happen in AU fics, so I'm sorry. I wanted to convey that Rini was trying to grow up, and having a really difficult time doing it because she's still quite angry with her father, and feeling very guilty about her mother. The other thing that you have to remember is that Serena and Darien are both told from Rini's point of view _as she remembers them_. This allows for a lot of exaggeration on her part, because of her aforementioned problems with her parents. She sees her mother as sickly, and her father as strict because he spends so little time with her, and she has no real reason to want to support him because of that.

Basically, Rini's a biased narrator, which I tried to make more obvious in the scene where she eavesdrops on her parents, but if you missed out on that aspect of the scene, please do consider it before you flame.

Aside from that, thanks for reading, loves!

♥♥Arianna Sunrise♥♥


	2. Two

Because the last chapter was kind of dramatic, I thought that I'd try to quickly follow it up with a chapter of the lighter variety. Rini's not all drama, loves; she has a little more than that to offer you! Of course, you have to expect her to still have a few spiteful moments, because she wouldn't be Rini without them!

* * *

_Rini:_

A car picked me up from the tiny little airport in Monterrey, California because my parents hadn't had the time to take me themselves. All the plans had been made over the phone the previous night, after I finally left the tree, and my parents put me down to bed with all of the reassurances in the world that I would feel much better once I had spent a few weeks in a country where I knew the language and customs.

It wouldn't be adjusting, they said, it would be fitting right back in.

I wasn't so sure about that, but I was heartened to see that I wasn't being dropped in some godforsaken town in the Midwest A/N: She's a bit stuck up like that, don't hate her too much for it, but rather, a nice beach community with pretty palm trees and some dazzling views of the ocean. Thank God I had come in on a day with glorious, sunny weather, because if I had arrived to be greeted by the normal overcast of Monterrey, I think I would have insisted on hopping right back on the plane and getting the hell back to Brazil, where the weather was nice and hot, and they were heavy on the balsamic in their food.

Heaving a sigh as I thought of all the great food I'd been having over the past three months, I pushed the memory aside and continued out the door, having been stamped into the country over an hour ago in the LAX Airport, where I'd gotten lost a billion times trying to figure out where to go amid all of the people trying to get into the country before their planes left because they had been stupid enough to book their connecting flights less than three hours out.

Fortunately, my dad had been surprisingly savvy at securing me some bookings despite having taken only _private_ jets in the last twenty or so years, and so hadn't made the same blunder as the million tourists milling around me.

Anyway, as soon as I exited the airport, I saw a sign with my last name, Preston, on the front of it, and walked over to the driver of the upscale taxi picking me up.

"Hi, I'm Rini Preston, could you give me a ride to the Trinity school in Pebble Beach?" I asked as politely as I could, but I was tired, and a little stuffed up thanks to my escapade the night before, so it probably came out sounding rude instead. Luckily, the driver didn't seem too put-out, and gladly piled me and my suitcases into the taxi before smoothly pulling out of the small parking lot of the airport.

We drove in silence through Old and New Monterrey, and a cute little town called Pacific Grove that proudly proclaimed itself "Butterfly town U.S.A.", before reaching a gate marked "Seventeen Mile Drive". I gave the driver a quizzical glance, because I thought that we were supposed to be heading to Pebble Beach, not hanging out, driving along a seventeen-mile road that you had to pay to get on.

"Pebble Beach is at the end of the drive, and the school's about halfway to it. Trinity bought two chateaus and three villas, and made them into a private school for kids like you." He explained, and I grew even more confused.

"Kids like me? What do you know about me?" I asked, and I was actually truly curious, not trying to sound rude at all.

"You're a traveling kid who had too much, is all I know, and I'm just delivering you to your asylum. Heh, they should have put the school in Pacific Grove, really, 'cause part of it is called Asilomar, that's…"

"Asylum by the Sea." I interrupted, kind of surprised, actually, because it really did look like an asylum away from the hustle and bustle of all the cities that I was used to living in. There was something kind of majestic and peaceful about it, and I had to grudgingly admit that of all of the places that they could have sent me to, my parents had chosen the most beautiful from my point of view.

"Yeah, that's it, good; you'll do well here if you can speak Spanish, save you a lot of hassle when you're tryin' to buy fireworks out in Seaside." He said, surprising me again with this bit of information.

Fireworks?

Just what had I gotten myself into now, with all these kids shooting off fireworks when they were supposed to be illegal!

"Oh, they're legal in Seaside." The driver said in response when I asked him about it.

It was about at that point that the driver turned up from the main road, and I looked away from the side that I was on to what was up above us, and was totally blown away.

"Holy Schiβe!" I exclaimed as soon as the school came into view.

It was huge! The collection of villas and chateaus were all at least three stories, and I realized that more had been built over the years, as there were now more than five that comprised the campus. Each huge home was connected on the third floor by a bridge to the ones next to it, and on the bridges, I could see hundreds of students—though no more than five hundred—sitting around and chatting merrily. After all, the bridges were of the sturdy variety, and I could see that the balconies of some of the homes had been extended outward to create courtyards for the students to study and laze about in.

I guess that this was because the chateaus were built on rather rocky and uneven ground, so it had been necessary to provide safer outdoor space for the students before someone got hurt. Because of the extensions, gargantuan pillars stretched up to the bases of both the bridges and the courtyards, and I could already tell that they were intricately carved with flora and fauna alike to make them seem even grander.

As we climbed the steep driveway to the school, pausing at a gate to ensure that we were cleared for entranced, I oohed and ahed over every little aspect of the school, which was even more amazing than some of the castles I'd seen in Europe, or the palaces in India.

Needless to say, I had forgotten my anger at my parents entirely, and was in a hurry to see what more the school had to offer before the day was out.

_

* * *

__Elios_: 

Having a hangover is never fun, but especially not when you wake up lying under a tree in the middle of the courtyard, at your school.

"Fuck." I groaned, as I carefully tried to sit up without aggravating my hangover anymore than the incessant chatter around me already was. It was rather inconsiderate of them, actually, considering that the flask in my hand was a dead giveaway that I wasn't just napping, but actually in a drink-induced coma.

However, I wasn't exactly sure how I had gotten there in the first place, and as soon as I opened my eyes, I swore again, realizing that I was naked from the waist up, and therefore covered in hives, due to my allergy of grass. In the middle of uttering my colorful stream of profanities, a shadow passed over me, leaving me temporarily chilled, and I glanced up to find the person I least wanted to see right now glaring down at me.

"What a sight you make, Elios, sitting here holding your head like that, it almost makes me pity you enough to want to spare you what exactly I've come to do to you." The demoness spat sarcastically, and I leaned back against the tree, crossing my arms over my chest, and holding tightly to my biceps to keep from scratching and making the hives worse.

"And what was that, Talia, love?" I questioned grumpily, trying to ignore just how great it would be to scratch my back a little more against the tree. It was already half doing the job on its own, but I knew that I could make it feel even better.

"This." Talia hissed, and cracked me in the side of my head with her AP Biology textbook. Predictably, the shot sent me straight to the floor, and I saw shapes in front of my eyes that were only supposed to be included with the drunkenness aspect of alcohol, not the hangover part.

"Holy Mother of God!" I exclaimed, shutting my eyes and cradling my head in my hands. To add to the effect, I had gone into the fetal position, though it had been entirely impulsive, not actually thought of by me.

"We're through, you lying bastard! How could you, Elios? How could you! Ariane is my sister for God's sake! You incite God, but you have committed such a godless act by convincing a sweet, innocent little fifteen-year-old to let you paw at her! You make me sick, Elios, and I hope that someday, this kind of behavior will come back to bite you in the ass, because no one deserves your cruelty!" She screeched, and then, with a rather solid kick to my stomach, she turned on her heel and stormed away.

"Christ, Elios, what did you do now?" A familiar voice came, and the next thing I knew, I had been pulled up, off the ground, and my arm was slung over the shoulders of my twin brother, Peraru. Blearily, I opened my eyes, and tossed him a grateful glance as he began to walk me back to my room, which was about fifty yards from where I had been passed out.

"Ariane Deveraux." I replied, groaning miserably. He sighed, shaking his head, and began to walk faster, I suppose to get me out of public as quickly as possible.

"Talia's sister? Jesus, Elios, don't you even have a conscience anymore?" Peraru asked after we had entered my room, and he had set me down on the couch. He tossed an icepack over the counter at me, and I reached out to catch it, moaning gratefully when it came in contact with my aching head.

"Shit, Peraru, I don't know, it was just so easy! The lass had been mooning o'er me ever since I started with Talia, and last night, I was looking for something a bit fresher than my girlfriend, if you know what I mean?" I said, and as Peraru passed through the living room to sit across from me, I was disappointed to see that he was shaking his head in disagreement.

"No, I don't know, but what I do know is that you need to stop this before you get yourself expelled. You're lucky that no one who cared stumbled upon you out there in your drawers before I did!" He said, and I realized that he was actually angry with me, which was unusual, because in general, he had resigned himself to my less than respectful behavior long ago. That made me sit up a little straighter, because I wanted to figure out what he was so angry about.

"Do you fancy Ariane, or something? Because if you do, I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"It's not about Ariane Deveraux, you moron! It's about everything! I know you're pissed at Dad for sending us here instead of letting us stay in Dublin with Mum, but you've become a complete wanker in the process of paying back Dad! I want to stay here, Elios, I like it, and if you just took a minute to look around you, I think you'd actually appreciate this bone he's thrown us just as much as I do. You're not the dumbshit sod that you make everyone here believe you are, so why don't you at least give it a chance?" He interrupted, and I had to roll my eyes at that.

"We belong at home, Peraru, or at least I do, if I'm supposed to be inheriting. I can't learn anything about that here, and that makes it a waste of time. You were always the bookworm, that's why you like it, but I have other goals in mind." I said, and I thought that it was a pretty solid point, but as with so many things, I was wrong again.

"This school has everything that you need to learn how to run an estate, and even more to teach you about being an ambassador. Think about it; you need math to keep accounts, English to write diplomatic letters, history to be able to look at trends, and science to keep the estate up to date. There's more, too, a lot more, and I'd love to tell you all about it, but I was actually headed somewhere before I found you holding your head in only your boxers. Go take a shower, use some cortisone, and consider actually doing your homework for once!" He said, laughing just enough that I realized that he considered our argument finished, finally. I stood, fighting the urge to vomit when I came up too fast.

"Where are you going?" I questioned as he opened the door. Peraru glanced backward, shrugging.

"I have to pick up a new student from the gates, Serena Preston, I believe. She's just flown in from Rio de Janeiro this morning, and from what I've heard, it was sort of an emergency."

_Serena Preston_?

Why did that name sound so familiar? Maybe I had dated her sister or something…

Waving it off, I turned back toward my bathroom, and called over my shoulder, "Have fun with your nutcase!"

Everyone knew that the "emergencies" were the kids who had snapped, something that I had considerable experience with since I had been an "emergency" myself.

Again, Peraru sighed, and stepped out of the doorway, shaking his head.

"Whatever you say, Elios."

* * *

Wow, I realized while I was writing this that I have never written from the point of view of a guy as messed up as Elios before, but don't worry, we'll fix him; he just needs time. I'm 99 sure that Elios and Rini are going to meet in the next chapter, so stay tuned for some very interesting moments between the two of them as they try to figure each other out. Obviously, neither character is as bad as they first seem, just a little misguided, and I'm hoping that the goodness of other characters, like Peraru for example, will keep them from sinking this fic entirely before their more likeable sides start to show. Yes, even Elios has a likeable side; he's just very angry, and also more than a little vindictive right now!

I also wanted to apologize for his language earlier, but do keep in mind that this fic is rated M anyways, so that should have clued you in pretty quickly.

Thanks for reading!

♥♥Arianna Sunrise♥♥


	3. Three

Hey, I'm on a roll… sort of. Here's where my perfectionist streak comes in, however, because already, I'm considering combining chapters one and two for readability purposes, but if I do that, it probably won't be for awhile, because I really want to just push forward, and get as much of this out as I possibly can before school starts again. Once it does, I will probably only be updating once a week, less because I'll be busy, and more because I'll be forgetful and a bit lazy. I'm really going to try and make this a long one, too, because I haven't really written a long one for you guys before, except for maybe 'Once Upon a Time', and that one had songs in it! I will also try to make the chapters longer, perhaps resulting in more detail, which would be a nice change from my dialogue-heavy writings, but that may not happen until school starts, because since I want to get this out quickly, my chapters are having trouble being any longer than six or seven pages, but once I slow down, it might be easier, eh?

So… on to the story!

* * *

_Rini_:

The driver and I were waiting at the innermost gate for close to twenty minutes before the student tour guide finally showed up. During that time, I contented myself with taking note of all of the plants used just beyond the gates to give the campus a wilder flair than one might expect. I wondered why whoever had planted the garden had done it like that, as opposed to simply letting it become overgrown with ice plant, which seemed the most widely-used form of lawn coverage, from what I could tell. Maybe the student guide would know what was up with all of these exotic plants, because they certainly weren't native, after all!

When the guide finally did appear out of the overgrowth, I definitely felt a little light-headed, because he was really gorgeous! He had really light, blonde hair, chiseled features, and one of the most knee-melting smiles I had ever seen! His only flaw was that he was tall and thin, rather than muscled, and that he couldn't match clothes for the life of him; green pants, and orange college sweatshirt, talk about ouch!

As he came down the pass from the school, he chose to grace me with one of those smiles, this one a sheepish one, presumably because he was late.

"I'm really sorry about this, I got held up back at the dorms." He apologized, and I nearly fainted… he was Irish too!

I'm sorry, but I just love Irish boys—mostly their accents, mind you, but I still loved them. This boy was no sod of an Irish boy, either, because like I said, except for being muscle challenged, he was really cute!

I smiled in return, and shrugged.

"That's alright, we weren't here too long." I said, suddenly wishing that I hadn't just thrown on my Venice sweatshirt and a pair of embroidered jeans this morning.

I mean, the guys here were bound to be more cultured than the average, and it might actually matter to them that I looked like I had just walked out of a greasy spoon joint, right?

Apparently not in this one's case, though, because he flushed and stammered like no other, and suddenly, I was reminded of someone, someone that I had known a long time ago, but it couldn't be…

Could it?

"Y-yeah, but I'm really sorry, I'm Peraru Doyle, a-and… why haven't they let you in?" He asked suddenly, changing tack entirely. I frowned in response, glancing at the driver, because as far as I was concerned, there had been no "they" to begin with.

"I rung up," he explained, "but no one answered the calls."

Oh… I guess there was a call button or something to let the people know that we were there, but seeing as how there had been no reply…

Peraru thought for a minute, then swore, and then blushed when he realized that he had been caught swearing in front of a girl, or so I surmised, and that's when it hit me.

"Peraru _Doyle_, did you say?" I asked, and he looked up in confusion, his handsome face trouble.

"Aye."

Oh my God, he said "aye"!

I know, I'm ridiculous, just ignore me.

"You're Brendan Doyle's son, aren't you?" I said more than asked, smiling, but he still hadn't caught on.

"We met in Prague five years ago, remember? It was you and your brother… what was his name? I can't remember rightly!" I continued, thinking hard on the name. It had been just as unusual as the name "Peraru", but it was definitely different, I at least remembered that!

"Elios," Peraru filled in, "my twin's name is Elios, and I remember Prague, but I can't place you." He was still confused, I knew, but my mind had momentarily paused on the way that he said his twin's name. It had been through clenched teeth, as if the name were something vile, and not the name of a close relative, a twin no less!

"They gave you the name 'Serena', didn't they? They always do that, saying that my nickname isn't a real name, but that's the point, isn't it! You'd probably know me better by Rini." I clarified, and recognition dawned on him suddenly, and he laughed heartily, obviously remembering something foolish I had done.

"Ah yes, the one who fell all the way down the stairs in the royal palace!" He said, and this time, it was my turn to blush.

"That'd be me." I said, and he laughed again.

"You knocked Elios right on his arse, if I remember correctly. I worshipped you for a week after that while Elios had a good sulk about being so humiliated by a girl." Peraru recalled, chuckling, but then his face turned serious. "I'm afraid that you won't find him much changed, Ms. Preston. In fact, he's the reason why you're still standing here rather than having coffee with the administrators or something; it's his job to man the gates during the morning shift."

That definitely set me on edge, because I remembered bratty little Elios well. His brother had spoken true about his twin's weeklong temper tantrum after I knocked him over in the presence of half the diplomatic world at a Christmas ball. Elios had been absolutely furious, and had sought to tease me mercilessly until I left out of a pure desire for revenge.

He put frogs in my hair, and worms in my shoes, and worst of all, he "accidentally" sent me tumbling straight into the waters of the Danube, which had been so cold and disgusting that I had ended up with a terrible cold, and we had had to leave early from the festivities at Prague. My only compensation for that particular event had been that Elios had been chastised in front of multiple ambassadors for his ungentlemanly conduct by his mother, and then sent to his room for the remainder of his family's stay.

My mother had said that he acted that way because he _liked_ me. You know, in the way that little boys and girls _like_ each other, but I hardly believed her at the time.

"Still angry, is he?" I replied, half-jokingly of course.

"Not at you, Ms. Preston." Peraru assured me, though he sounded very tired, and at his wits end when he said it.

"Rini, please. I mean, you're older than me, and we're going to be schoolmates, so don't feel obliged to act on ceremony, Peraru." I said, purposely ending with his name to emphasize my point. Smiling, he stepped up to the bars and shook my hand.

"Now, let me call up so that we can get your things into your room. I think they said that you were in the Mediterranean Villa, if I'm not mistaken…" Peraru trailed off as he pulled out his cell phone; one of those expensive ones that you can put music on, and that gets service almost everywhere for a "nominal" fee of three-hundred dollars.

Peraru turned away and began speaking quickly in one of the few European languages that I still couldn't understand; Irish Gaelic. It had always seemed so impossible to me, and I speak plenty of languages fluently, but the way that it just rolled off of Peraru's tongue now…

It seemed just as beautiful as French or Italian, perhaps even more so.

Anyway, Peraru's voice was beginning to rise in pitch, and I was starting to get worried. This couldn't only be about opening the gate, there was some other argument going on as well, but regardless, after about fifteen minutes, the gate finally opened, and Peraru hung up the phone.

"Drive up to the main office, and they'll tell you where to put her bags." He told the driver, at the same time motioning for me to walk through and enter the gates to the school that I would be living in for the next four months, until the summer began. Before I let him lead me away, however, I turned back to the driver and did a slight curtsy.

"Thank you for your help, sir; you've put me into an immeasurably better mood with your generosity." I said sincerely, and the old driver returned my smile, tipping his hat before sliding into the taxi, and speeding off, up the road.

"Was that a bit of flattery learned in deportment, or were you actually thanking him?" Peraru asked, surprising me.

"I was actually, thanking him, why wouldn't I? This morning, I felt awful, and now, I think that I just might be able to do this without too much of a fuss, and all because he was kind and informative." I said simply, following him along the wall until we reached a set of stairs that had been built to encourage the growth of the garden, rather than discourage it. Vines encircled the banisters, and moss had grown over the steps in many areas to give them a truly wondrous look. They fit with the jungle of a garden as surely as any of the plants, and that was something that, as a politically involved teen, I really appreciated.

"Not exactly common around here, but it's a nice touch, isn't it?" Peraru commented, and I inclined my head, smiling.

"Very nice." I agreed, waiting for him to start climbing before I did. You never know if he had planned an alternative mode of transportation after all.

"Before you ask, the garden was planted in this style to act as a contrast to what the students were used to. You know as well as I that most gardens are full of mazes, and have the same fountains, sculptures, and plants as everywhere else, and fortunately, the landscape artist knew it as well. He planted the garden in the Indian and Mexican style to make the school seem more adventurous, and it is." Peraru explained.

"More adventurous than what?"

He looked at me, smiling lightly.

"Than anything you've ever done before." He replied, and I gave him a critical glance, so he continued; "There's just as much political intrigue going on here as there is in the royal courts, except more so, because this is a high school and college campus full of the spoiled children of diplomats and wealthy businessmen."

"I didn't realize that it was a college!" I exclaimed, looking around to see if there was anything else that I had missed, and causing Peraru to laugh merrily.

"Oh yes, all of the Trinities double as colleges, and this one is specifically for those interested in political science, international diplomacy, and history. Those focuses make this particular campus even more subject to intrigue, so I advise you to be on your guard." He suggested, and at first, I had to laugh at him, but when Peraru did not laugh with me, it occurred to me that he hadn't actually been joking at all; I had just stepped out of one court, and into another, without even realizing what was going on!

"But there are no royals here, no one to impress." I pointed out.

"Oh, but there are. Despite not having the title, there are plenty of royals and nobles here; it just depends on whether or not you'd like to be a player in it all. Really, that part is just like any other high school, except for one thing; the people here have much more experience at it than your average, American teen."

"And my parents half expected to send me away from all this!" I said, throwing up my hands in defeat.

"They probably only made it worse."

Truth to tell, though, my experiences at court—any court—had been few, mainly because mother sought to keep me out of the political fray as much as possible. How was I going to survive now in a school that was a court all its own with practically no experience under my belt?

"How bad is it?" I asked finally, when we were about two-thirds of the way up the stairs. Honestly, after Peraru had started off with such a heavy subject, I was less than excited to hear his answer to the question, and had been mulling over asking it for awhile now, but I had to know what I was up against, or how else was I ever going to be prepared?

Sighing, Peraru stopped, and turned to face me, offering me a reassuring smile.

"Chin up, lass; it probably won't turn out to be as bad as I have you imagining it to be. I may speak of the school as though it should cease to exist, but truly, I like it here. The information available to us just in our library is vaster than you would ever need it to be, and plenty of the people here are as normal and decent as you and I, so no need to worry." He promised, patting me on the shoulder, and then resumed his ascent up the staircase.

"You just made it sound so…"

"Dramatic? Yeah, I do that sometimes. I suppose it might have something to do with the number of historical novels I read, and the fact that I sometimes wish that I were there, instead of here." Peraru admitted with a shrug.

Spending time with him was nice, and I realized that this tour was the first exchange with a person my own age that I actually cared about in years. Peraru was funny, and I liked that he could tell a good story, if need be. His personality might have been shy before he realized that I was an old friend, but once he had, I had completely forgotten about his lamentable clothing choices, and his disappointing lack of musculature.

Not enough of a connection had been made to foster an attraction between the two of us, but it seemed to me more and more as the tour wore on that Peraru and I would just have to stay in touch after this. Allowing him to slip into oblivion along with the other thousand strangers I'd met in my lifetime just didn't seem right, now that I was finally getting along with someone my own age.

And so, by the time the tour was done, and Peraru had led me to the administrative offices, I had already done something productive at my new school—

I had made a friend.

* * *

_Elios_: 

Minding the gate has to be one of the most mind-numbingly dull tasks known to man. The minder just has to sit there for hours and hours, pressing a button to open the gates for students and visitors, and pressing another to yell at the unwanted fodder on the street to vacate the premises.

And yet, it was a job. More importantly, it was a job that was going to help pay for the Porsche that I had been planning to buy for a full year now. It was the only thing that I was truly devoted to at the time, and a man is hardly going to let a few thousand dollars turn his singular devotion to something else.

As I sat reclining in the mercifully soft chair allotted to every gate minder, my keen hearing suddenly picked up on a light, female voice that I did not immediately recognize as belonging to a student here.

One might think that statement a little misleading, because after all, who is to say that it was just someone in the office or something? The difference is, I have perfect pitch, and can thus identify the difference in peoples' voices, and believe me, working as the gatekeeper of Trinity Pebble Beach gives you plenty of opportunity to memorize the pitches in everyone's voices.

Sitting up a little straighter, I listened a bit more intently to the sound. Being around eight feet up, and behind a closed door, I couldn't really make out any words, but I could distinguish the girl's mood, and she was definitely tired, but also quite contented… and she was also speaking to my brother, which meant that she _was_ a new student after all.

She was Serena Preston, but I still hadn't figured out where I had heard that name before, so I suppose that didn't really mean much.

Glancing at the monitor that showed all the activity at the front gate, I decided that anyone who came could wait for me to get finished spying on this new girl. It was a new challenge, something new to work out, and that was not something that I had been expecting at all, but then, I was getting ahead of myself, wasn't I? After all, I hadn't really gotten a clear shot of her from the monitor, because she had been a little bit too far over, so I didn't even really know what she looked like!

But her name was nice, and she had a pleasantly soothing sort of voice, one that settled at just the right pitches so that it didn't grate, unlike the imbecilic Talia's voice, or her sister, Ariane's for that matter.

Carefully, I got up out of my chair and slowly opened the door a crack to see if I could now spot the girl.

My gaze rounded on Peraru, and I cursed under my breath; he was standing just so that I couldn't tell anything at all except that the girl was rather short—only around five foot four to my six foot two—and that she was wearing some sort of a sweatshirt, but that was to be expected of most "emergency" cases.

Peraru shifted a bit, and I got a decent shot of her legs, which were clad in jeans, and obviously very shapely, if not quite slender. The rest of her body was bound, then, to be curvaceous and soft, the way that a woman's body _should_ be.

Granted, that was an opinion, but I have dated too many women not to appreciate that the stereotypical stick-figure beauties are not, in fact, very beautiful at all. Most of the time, if you were too take them by their bodies alone, they looked like little boys, not like supermodels at all. My opinion had also been formed based on the fact that the women in my own family tended to be full-figured, rather than slender, and enough verbal beatings by my sisters, Sarah and Aine, had instilled in me the viewpoint that not everything was about a girl's body.

Considering my reputation, it is probably rather a shocking thought that I would be looking for more than a pretty face, and a nice body, but if you knew the general profiles of the girls I dated, then you would understand that many of them, even Talia, were fairly good students with solid morals.

I was just exceptionally good at making them forget those morals.

"Thank you so much for the tour, you were very informative." Serena Preston said to my brother, and immediately, I felt my throat tighten at the flirtatious lilt in her voice. Peraru would never recognize it, but I did, and right away, I was on the defensive, because pretty girls could try to mess with my head as much as they wanted, but Peraru was one of those rare, pure souls that deserved an equally pure and honest partner in life.

At least, that's what I told myself when I realized that this girl was fond of Peraru, and that he was reciprocating.

Peraru wasn't like me; when he finally started dating someone, it would be serious, not like the flings that I was endlessly involved in, which meant that it was my responsibility to weed out the bad seeds before he got hurt, because God knows that I deserved to far more than he did when all was said and done.

"I-it was nothing, but you're welcome. I'll leave you to the dean now, alright?" He asked, and presumably the girl nodded, because he left before waiting for an answer, and that was when I finally got to see just what type of girl had weaseled her way into my brother's attentions—

--and found myself suddenly short of breath.

"Shit." I swore, realizing that this was going to be more difficult than I thought.

Peraru had a bit of a chivalric streak, you see, though I guess the best way to phrase it is something akin to "fixer-of-broken persons syndrome", and this girl was obviously a primary candidate for it. She may have been smiling now, but she was pale with fatigue, and her eye makeup had run a little from crying.

That alone would have been enough to garner Peraru's sympathy, but the worst part was by far the fact that she looked as innocent as a newborn babe, with an innocent sort of beauty to match. Her face was softly angular, her eyes that rare shade of blue that was actually violet A/N: Sorry, closest I could reasonably get to wine-colored without going all "albino" on you guys, her full lips a delectable shade of pink, and to make matters worse, it was strained with a look of intense loneliness and a bit of guilt.

You have to be an intensely guilty person yourself to recognize the look on a stranger, but the lines of worry that had not eased around her eyes despite her temporary contentment belied very, very much guilt indeed.

The cherry on top of the cake was, of course, her sleep-and-worry-mussed red-blonde hair, which made for the overall picture of a very sad, and very attractive girl of no more than sixteen or seventeen years of age.

My brother was toast.

I was just about to go down and warn the little dove away from my brother's company when a very harassed-looking intern from the college side of campus bustled up the steps, toward me, and handed me a yellow slip—the slip for the Director of Student Activities, my boss.

"Sorry." She apologized, and then scooted past me, to the gate minder's post, where I was supposed to be, well, minding the gate.

Assuming that I was not on the verge of being fired, that was a very bad situation for this girl to have stumbled across. I would have to guarantee that she would say nothing about it, and the only way to do that…

"Just started here, have you?" I asked, purposely maximizing my Irish brogue to immediately capture the intern's attention. She stopped halfway through opening the door and turned back around, flustered. I took in her features, offering her an easy smile so that she wouldn't get embarrassed and bolt on me. Clad in a black skirt suit and wearing a pair of horn-rim glasses that were an unusually attractive asset to her stick-up-her-ass appearance, she was not terribly bad-looking, and she obviously hadn't heard of me, which was just fine at present, considering my current reputation as the dumb Irish wanker who woke up in the middle of the courtyard half-naked.

She nodded, her cheeks flushed, and stood up a little straighter, and sticking out her unfortunate lack of a chest. This was what I was talking about before—she was bony and flat in both the front and back, and while she had a reasonably attractive face, there just wasn't much allure to her for me. However, I had not singled her out to date, so what I thought of her appearance hardly mattered at present.

"Yeah, yesterday morning. I'm afraid that I don't really know what I'm doing, actually. Oh God, that actually was supposed to be for you, I hope, right? Because if it isn't, you would be really kind to tell me now…" She continued to babble, and I listened respectfully, chuckling at her nervousness. To think, I was hardly even a senior, and this girl—obviously at least a sophomore at the college—was tripping over herself just talking to me. I must have been getting really good, I supposed, to warrant such a reaction from an older lass.

When I started to bore of her babbling, though, I stepped forward, laughing merrily, and lightly touched her forearm, causing her to swallow up her words instantly.

"Calm yourself, lass, you brought this to the right person, you have my word. Now, I suppose you have been asked to man the gates while I'm out, eh?"

She nodded, pushing up her glasses, and flushing even more deeply than she had been before.

"And you have no idea how to do that, do you?"

This time, she shook her head, and I changed my smile from amused to reassuring.

"Alright, I'll show you." I said to her, and her face brightened, suddenly making her look not as harassed as before, and therefore much easier on the eyes.

Funny how a little patience and understanding always goes so far with women. Regardless, once I had exited the little gate-minding room, I felt secure in the fact that she would not be ratting me out any time soon, and prepared to face my boss, who was, unfortunately, a man, and therefore, quite outside of my area of expertise, which meant that I had to try a lot harder to keep my job than I even did to get good grades, which was really saying something, considering how much damned integrity the teachers at Trinity usually had.

Unfortunately, in the process of securing my job, I had completely forgotten about the pretty little Preston girl; something that I would regret very much very shortly.

* * *

Whew! That one took me _awhile_ to pound out! I think that was on account of the fact that I was really tempted to just stop after Rini's POV this time, instead of going on with Elios' point of view, but I'm really trying to get to the point where Elios and Rini meet, and that isn't going to happen quickly enough if I break this up too much, because believe it or not, I'll get way more distracted from my goals if I do it that way.

Oh, and I know that I said this last time, but I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure that they'll meet by the end of the next chapter, so not to worry!

I'd also like to take a few seconds to acknowledge mizzlilme for her very encouraging review. It's always nice to find that someone still likes a story after you've twisted and turned it upside down and inside out, so I thank her very much!

To all the rest of you, I'm not going to beg for reviews or anything, because that's pretty bad form if you ask me, but I do want to know if you guys like it, or if you would rather that I just repost the old version of this story, and leave it at that. I'm not going to lie; I'm pretty pleased with how this is turning out so far, but if you guys don't like it, then there's little point in continuing, don't you think?

Regardless of whether or not you like this, thank you for taking the time to read; it means a lot to me!

♥♥Arianna Sunrise♥♥


	4. Four

Okay, I know, I'm REALLY lame, and I'm sorry, but I do have an excuse…

My homework ate me.

When it spat me back out, my parents then demanded that I get a job, or else I would have to work the Boy Scout tree lot.

For FREE.

Obviously, I was able to quickly get a job at the local Barnes and Noble, but as anyone who has ever worked for Barnes and Noble can attest, we are underpaid and overworked.

Then, miracles of miracles, I was serving tea to someone this last Friday, and I accidentally spilled the scalding hot water all over my hands. After a lovely trip to the E.R., it was determined that I ought not to be working this weekend since I would be on codeine (which has a really funky effect on me, to the extent that my best friend declared that I should never, ever smoke pot).

So now, since I finally have a bit of free time, I have decided to update this fic just in time for Presidents Weekend (er… sort of, cut me some slack here) … granted you won't be seeing anything good between Elios and Rini for awhile, if the speed of this fic is any indication. Still, I hope that you guys appreciate it, because it's actually my birthday weekend, which means that there are a ton of other things that I could be doing instead of writing a fan fiction for a series that I haven't written for since I was thirteen.

Enjoy!

_Elios_:

It would be an understatement to say that the meeting with my boss did not go well, but I did, nonetheless, manage to keep my job for the time being, something for which I was eternally grateful, since I hadn't exactly planned on being away from my alarm clock this morning.

When my shift was finally over, I decided to take a detour to the cafeteria before heading back to my room, which was a decidedly good move, since I later learned that Talia and Ariane had been planning on making a spectacle of me upon catching me on my walk back from the office. Fortunately, when they hadn't found me after awhile, they had instead moved on to the very important task of finishing their AP homework, thus saving me from having to go through the trouble of rescuing my reputation for the next week.

As I'm sure you might be able to imagine, I was rather good at it due to the multitude of experiences that I had had doing just that.

Once I had finished eating two meals worth of bad cafeteria food, I attempted to find my brother in the library in order to ask him about what exactly was bothering him.

It had been clear from his tone while speaking with me on the phone earlier, that contrary to what I had assumed that morning, Peraru was still miffed at me for being such a wanker. About what, I could only guess, since I was a wanker about a lot of things, and I thought we'd had our blowup for the month.

Guess not…

I found Peraru huddled in the back of the journalism section, intent on a book that was, more likely than not, written by Henry James, his favorite classical author. The familiar sight made me chuckle loudly enough that Peraru put down his book and glared at me.

Ah, what do you know? He wasn't reading James after all; this book was _The Kite Runner_, by Khaled Housseini.

"What're you doing here?" Peraru ask warily, surprising me because I hadn't really done anything to put him on his guard.

Yet.

"You're still pissed at me, I see, and coincidentally, that's why I'm here; to ask you what I've done that's got your panties in a knot." I said, leaning back against the bookshelf so that I could more comfortably wait for an explanation. However, Peraru apparently was not in the mood to give any explanations, because he simply picked up his book, and kept reading, though he was still visibly annoyed with me. "Just tell me what I did wrong."

Peraru sighed and took off his reading glasses—an accessory that I normally teased him relentlessly over, but I was thinking that it might not really be such a good time for that right now, so I said nothing, just waited for his response.

"More of the same, really, though right now, I can add that you've interrupted my reading, which is another thing that I know I've asked you to refrain from doing in the past." He said dryly, and I winced, recalling that he had, in fact, said such a thing to me, and that I had given my word not to do it again.

Peraru's reading time was sacred to him, and I'd interrupted it when he was already angry with me. Now, I could sense that he was less than a step away from livid, which was not something that I wanted to happen, on account of the fact that I at least wanted to graduate high school before I died. Despite his appearance, my brother was actually more than capable of packing a punch, although that was a very little known fact.

Generally, people took one look at Peraru and I and deemed him the scrawny, nerdy one, and me the tough one who was too good for school and books. The obvious irony was that I actually did read some good books, like _War and Peace_, and _The Count of Monte Cristo_, and Peraru had only been unfortunate enough to be born with a slighter build than I, and nearsightedness that led him to focus too hard on small details, and thus strain his eyes. That was what the glasses were for—to allow him to avoid straining his eyes unnecessarily.

"I thought we'd already had this discussion this morn…"

"Do you really think that having an argument is going to fix how much of an arse you are? Such a thing requires a conscious effort—something which I very much doubt you're intending to apply to growing up, and assuming some responsibility for once, not when there are women in the world, anyway, and a father to piss off." Peraru spat, clearly deciding that attempting to read any further would be a lost cause, and pushing himself to his feet.

He wasn't as tall as I was, just shy of two inches shorter, but Peraru angry might as well have been a seven foot tall Peraru. Nonetheless, he had hit a nerve, and I struck back.

"You're always saying that this is all about father, but have you ever considered that maybe I just like women? Not all men have to be prudes, like you, you know." I snapped arrogantly, causing Peraru to laugh bitterly.

"I'm hardly a prude, brother, I look at women probably just as much as you do, but the way that I think about them is as actual people, with minds, and hopes, and dreams, not as objects as you and the majority of the idiots in this place chose to. It's hard not to be ashamed of you for acting as such, and making so many enemies.

"Take Talia and Ariane; one day they'll be duchesses in France, and what happens when you want to expand one of our family's businesses into France? I'll tell you what will happen, Elios; those two will work against you, going to any lengths to ensure that you don't succeed, rather than encouraging the government to accept you as they might have had you not acted like an imbecile with them. I shudder to think of what would actually happen if word of this, or any of your other mistakes got back to father."

I rolled my eyes, and looked over my shoulder, out the window at the beautiful ocean view that few save my brother and the librarians ever got to see, as hardly anyone ever went past the first floor, and this was the third.

"Probably, he'd just give me a verbal thrashing when I came back for Christmas, and send me right back to school." I replied boredly.

"You don't think he'd disinherit you?" Peraru asked mildly, and I had to laugh at the notion of my father disinheriting me over my obstinacy.

"In favor of you?" I suggested, glancing back at him long enough for him to see just how ridiculous I found the notion. "Not bloody likely!"

Peraru sighed, shaking his head, and I looked back out at the ocean again, marveling at the colors that the light had generated that day. My fingers were itching to paint the scene, the way that the cliffs reflected off the ocean, and the green of the ice plant spilling over those cliffs, into the purple flowers that bloomed from the particular breed. From this distance, they looked like a purple carpet, flanked on all sides by green palms and orange bird of paradise flowers at the top.

Painting was not one of my strong suits, as such, but it was a nice escape, almost as good as listening to music, or better yet, singing an Italian, or a German aria.

"Not me, but Coelin? He'd make a great earl, a great leader of the family." Peraru said in a tone that wasn't quite warning, but that was hardly passive.

I felt icy fingers constrict about my lungs when I thought of our sixteen-year-old brother leading the family instead of me. Perhaps Coelin was a better person than I was, but he had a romantic vision of the world that I suspected would eventually lead him to make a grave mistake someday.

Our father knew this too. Often I had seen him shaking his head at Coelin's idealism, obviously thinking the same thing as me: that this was—as had been so succinctly put to me earlier—his hubris, his fatal flaw.

"Then why isn't he here, Peraru? I would imagine that if father expected to replace me, he would send my usurper to the ideal school for such a job, and last I checked, Coelin is entering his junior year, and he still isn't here." I pointed out, pleased with myself for having recognized the holes in Peraru's argument.

"If you had checked harder, you would also know that Coelin is taking this semester off to follow father around Europe. Father intends him to be an ambassador, since I couldn't be, and if he fails in Coelin, then I have no doubt that he will start in on Aine. What you should be concerned about, however, is that Coelin just might end up here in the winter, or so mother hopes, and if he does, he will have the training necessary, without the attitude, to take your place as earl."

I considered that, my mood dark, before I just laughed and shook it off.

"Fuck, he can have it." I decided, amused with Peraru's shocked expression of total disbelief.

"You don't mean that, I know you don't, Elios, and since you don't, you should know that using such language will only give others the perception that you are ignorant and weak, rather than well-spoken and powerful." Peraru lectured—he would probably have made a good courtier of lower standing with such views, but being an earl was different.

It required a lot of characteristics that couldn't simply be learned, and I was more than aware of the fact that I _did_ have the inherent qualities needed to lead an earldom.

_Rini_:

One thing was for certain; students of the Trinity schools lived nearly as lavishly in their dorms as they did at home. My dorm, for example, was on the third floor of a villa, and it not only had a comfortable bedroom, but also a full bathroom, kitchen, and living room, complete with marble countertops, and beautiful wooden floors blanketed in soft, vividly colored rugs. There was even a small terrace with a tiny table and two chairs connecting to the bedroom.

I couldn't even bring myself to think about how disgustingly expensive this school must be for all of the parents who were so self-absorbed and prone to workaholism that they had resorted to sending their children here.

On the kitchen counter, there was a welcome basket with a personal note from the headmaster in addition to various cheeses, crackers, and soft drinks of the more upscale variety: expensive sparkling cider, cream soda, root beer, coke, etc., and even a few containers filled with beautiful French teas, and Italian coffees and espressos. As one might assume, there was also a kettle for the tea on the stove, and both a coffee maker and espresso machine further along the counter.

I almost felt as if I were in South Africa anyway, and had to sit down for a long time with a cup of tea in the living room as I took it all in.

There should have been orphans living here, not spoiled rich brats like me, and I simply couldn't understand how the other students could accept such an arrangement.

Such were the ways of the rich.

After finishing my tea, I set the empty mug aside on the short coffee table in front of the couch, and decided that now might be just as good a time as any to check out the cafeteria. God knows I didn't have to, with all of the snacks in my welcome basket, but I reasoned that it would probably be to my advantage to get out and meet some other students. No doubt I even knew some of them, considering just how many events I had attended that had been so similar to the party at which I had become acquainted with Peraru and his twin.

Briefly, I wondered if Elios was still as irritable as he had been back then, but dismissed the notion entirely after a moment. People change, as a rule, and I had no doubt that Elios would turn out to be much more charming than he had been in Prague.

It took me a good half an hour to find the cafeteria, which turned out to be embarrassingly close to my dorm.

Just down the stairs, in fact.

Anyway, as soon as I entered it was all of three seconds before I began to spot people that I knew. No close friends, but plenty of acquaintances that waved as I passed. I returned their waves with shy smiles, because to be honest, I expected sneers in return. Shockingly, none came, and I realized that they were probably all used to it because they had all been just like me at one point or another.

There was definitely something to be said for attending a school for kids with similar issues to yours. Certainly they were broken up in much the same way as any other school, with the jocks, geeks, intellectuals, drama geeks, and choir nerds all grouping together, but there seemed to be much less animosity between them than at my other schools. Overall the atmosphere was calm and relaxed, almost like in all those little Italian coffee shops that I had adored during the short time my father had been stationed in Roma.

Speaking of which, I was able to get a cup of this lovely tea called _Pleine Lune_ that smelled like one of my favorite perfumes, and tasted like heaven.

As I sat, sipping my tea, and reading a school newspaper that I had grabbed off a rack next to the "register"—everything was prepaid, so it was really just a serving and tipping area—I started to think that this school probably wouldn't be so bad. Being away from my parents was kind of depressing, but in a lot of ways, I realized that this was my chance to finally live life relatively on my own terms, and who was I to knock that?

"Rini?" A husky but feminine voice asked in surprise from beside my table. Momentarily stunned by this direct recognition, I slowly glanced up from the dainty, bodice-clad waist of the girl to her pale but beautiful face into which were set deep, dramatically violet eyes that I knew better than anything.

"Hotaru?" I gasped delightedly, jumping up to hug the only very close friend that I had ever had. It had been several years since we had seen each other, but we had sort of kept in touch, which said a lot about our friendship since girls like us didn't maintain friendships beyond what was convenient.

Smiling, Hotaru gladly accepted my hug, her thin, frail arms coming up to return my embrace. Hotaru had always been a little weak, having been born prematurely and put on all sorts of life support until she was nearly a year old. A further bout of pneumonia when she was still very young had insured that Hotaru's health would always be fragile, but she had a natural gift for healing, and listened well to the problems of others without ever interrupting.

When I released her, I noted that Hotaru had no friends trailing behind her, although some of the drama geeks seemed to be waving her over with a bit of impatience in their movements.

"How are you?" I asked excitedly, and Hotaru returned my enthusiasm in her customary standoffish way with a slight smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

"Pretty good… I haven't been to the hospital lately, at least." She chirped, flushing at that last bit.

"That's great!" I said sincerely, giving her my warmest smile, because I knew that she reacted best to those who showed her the same amount of concern that she showed everyone else.

In addition to being somewhat meek, Hotaru tended toward stints of melancholia, and I knew that as a younger teen, she had suffered horribly from guilt and suicidal tendencies. I had been her first real friend, and I knew that my friendship had helped her overcome a lot of her depression back then.

Now, she looked almost healthy, and I had a hard time believing that the well-grounded girl in front of me would ever think of killing herself now. She was, if not quite self-confident, then at least contented with her lot in life, at least for the moment.

"But what about you, Rini? I didn't know you were going here." She prompted me, but she was distracted, looking over at her insistent drama acquaintances with tension marring her brow. They seemed to be demanding that she make a choice, and so I tried to make it easier on her.

"We can go sit with them… or you can just sit with me, and we can catch up." I suggested, and she gave me a sad but hopeful look.

"I'll sit with you." Hotaru said definitively, and I nodded, frowning when a girl with lots of eyeliner rolled her eyes, and gestured for the rest of the group to leave.

"Who are those girls?"

The leader had hair much the same color as mine, but her eyes were hazel, and her three friends had dyed their hair blue, red, and green, and wore flamboyant outfits that were definitely not western.

Hotaru chuckled lightly, and sat down across from me.

"The Amazons. They're all from Brazil, and they're all related in one way or another. Ceres is the red-blonde girl with the eyeliner, Vesta is the red-haired girl with the crazy hairdo, Juno is the annoyed looking one with the green hair, and Pallas is the blue one who looks stoned. She isn't, of course, she just has some developmental difficulties, but she is actually really nice, and sings like a nightingale. They all do." Hotaru replied, and my eyebrows lifted a fraction.

"Ah." I replied politely, surprised when Hotaru began to snicker at my response. She volunteered nothing, and it took me a minute or so before I realized exactly what was amusing her so much.

"Wait… _the_ Ceres, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas?"

Hotaru nodded, laughing at my incredulity.

"I thought they were British and American!" I exclaimed, stunned. Again, Hotaru laughed.

"Nope, they lied to us."

I had to think about that for a moment.

"Good lord." I said finally.

"Indeed."

We cracked up for another five minutes before getting on to business.

"So their name is their band name?" I questioned, and again, Hotaru shrugged.

"Sort of. They sing well, but their main claim to fame is actually their dancing and acrobatics. The drama department loves them, and they do a lot of performing on the Peninsula. Sometimes, I perform with them on various instruments."

"Oh, that's right! Your aunts taught you when you were young." I remembered, and for a moment, Hotaru looked nostalgic. When her father had been in high-risk situations, Hotaru had often been forced to stay with her "aunts" Michelle and Alex as a child. In actuality, Michelle was Hotaru's aunt, and Alex her lover, although half the time, Alex was mistaken for a man, so it was easy to confuse them for a normal heterosexual couple. Reflecting on the multiple occurrences of Alex being addressed as a man on the rare occasions I had met her used to provide Hotaru and I endless hours of amusement. Regardless, the two women had been very musical, and had taught Hotaru everything there was to know about music… except how to sing.

For someone so well versed in music theory and performance, Hotaru's singing was woefully inadequate, but that suited her just fine, because she was really the type who preferred to be in the background as the creator. She had a billion and one talents, and just needed the opportunity to display them.

This group of Amazons' recognition of that creativity improved my opinion of them immensely.

"Yeah, and it's fun, you know… but tell me about your family, what's going on there?" She asked quickly, blushing furiously at all the attention to her own hobbies. Sighing, I gave in and filled her in on my life, saddened to find that Hotaru was still so shy. It was something to work on, because God knew that she had a beautiful personality when she wasn't worried about the thoughts of others.

As long as she remained open with me, though, I wasn't going to push her, just make suggestions, because I was as audacious and open as she was shy and reserved as soon as I had felt out a situation, and that was probably why we made such great friends.

Okay, yes, I know I changed the quartet a bit, but I think it appropriately establishes their craziness. They are depicted as marvelous performers in the original series, and it seems fitting that they should be able to dupe Rini and Hotaru even at such a young age. Plus, it fits in better with my story that they should be Brazilians, and not Anglo-Saxons. It provides better variety, and I am not ashamed to make this change. If I were actually writing this story to be published, I would probably make the change in the first chapter, but as it is, I don't want to have to make you re-read that section just to change their nationality.

With love and lots of burn cream,

Arianna Sunrise


End file.
